is a Japanese media franchise and toy line created in 2008 as a joint venture between

Sanrio is a Japanese entertainment company. It designs, licenses, and produces products focusing on the '' kawaii'' ("cute") segment of Japanese popular culture. Their products include stationery, school supplies, gifts, and accessories which are so ...

and

Sega Toys is a Japanese toy company and animation studios, owned by Sega Sammy Holdings. The company was founded when Yonezawa Toys, Japan's largest post-war toy manufacturer, was absorbed into Sega in 1991 as Sega-Yonezawa. Sega Toys have created toys fo ...

, produced by the third character designer of Hello Kitty, Yuko Yamaguchi and illustrated by the character designer of Cinnamoroll, Miyuki Okumura. The franchise was originally launched on January 15, 2008, focusing on animals named after jewels, birthstones and minerals, who can use magic using their eyes. Due to its success, Sanrio and Sega Toys expanded the Jewelpet franchise overseas. The franchise is currently being licensed by Italian company

Giochi Preziosi Giochi Preziosi S.p.A. also known as Gruppo Giochi Preziosi (Giochi Preziosi Group) is an Italian company that produces toys and TV series based on their toys. They work in association with Marathon Media and Mondo TV. Giochi Preziosi is the pri ...

for its European release. The official slogan is "Eyes of Jewel that Shine, glittering with Luck and Good Fortune".

Story

In an antique shop, there was a magical Jewel Box which sat there for centuries and shined in very bright colors. A girl accidentally encountered the box and opened it, causing a strange light to shine and the girl was sucked inside. She was now in a strange new world that shined like jewels. A sign read 'Jewel Land'. The girl was amazed, as everything shone in bright colors and was decorated in all kinds of jewels. At the center of the town, there was a strange tower, also decorated with magical jewels. She went to the tower and went inside. The girl was greeted by a princess and was happy to see her as she offered her a jewel apple. The girl accepted the gift and the jewel in the girl's hand glowed, magically transforming into a cute animal. The princess said the creature was called a Jewelpet, and each of them live in Jewel Land. However, she also told her the crisis that Jewel Land was facing as the magic was starting to vanish. She told the girl that she must raise that Jewelpet she had into a full-fledged magician. Each Jewelpet differs from their magical Jewel Eyes and depends on the human partner who awakens them and use magic whenever they need to. They all study magic along with their partners in a special school in Jewel Land for them to become master magicians. The pets and their partners must endure a lot of hardships and even trouble. With each care the human partners give to their Jewelpets, the pets love them back. For a Jewelpet to become a magician, it must go through rigorous training and studying with their human partners to prevent the crisis in Jewel Land. If the Jewelpet becomes a magician, they'll be rewarded with a magical Jewel Cloak, as a symbol of mastery over its magic.

History

The Jewelpet franchise debuted on January 15, 2008 as the first collaborative project between Sanrio and

. The franchise originally started off with 33 characters, each of them being best sellers during the summer of that year with each toy having internet connectivity capabilities using special passwords. As ''Jewelpet'' entered its first year in 2009, the first season of the anime series of the same name premiered. In February 2010, 600 items of merchandise were all made with over 25 licensed companies for its overseas and domestic expansion.「サンリオ『ジュエルペット』品目倍増、セガトイズと開発のキャラ、ライセンス拡大」『日経MJ』2010年2月12日、9頁。 On March 11, 2010, the 34th Jewelpet, Labra, officially debuted. The characters made their official debut as meet able characters in Sanrio Puroland with their first two shows: and . In addition, after the characters debuted in Puroland, visitors increased by 17% during the fourth quarter of 2010. In December 2010, three new Jewelpets officially debuted: Angela, Charotte and Jasper. Charotte and Jasper were both winners of a Jewelpet Design Contest that was held during the airing of Jewelpet Twinkle. In 2011, the Webgurumi website was closed down and was replaced by a new website: Jewel Land Online. In December of that same year, the character Sakuran made its official debut alongside 11 new characters in a new subline called Sweetspets. Sakuran herself is also a winner of the new character design contest that was held during the airing of Jewelpet Sunshine. On March 31, 2012, two new male Jewelpets debuted: Coal and Granite. Jewel Land Online ended its service that date as well. In June 2012, the Puroland show opened in conjunction with the ''Jewelpet Kira☆Deco!'' TV series. In August 2012, its first official theatrical film was released in Japanese cinemas with the introduction of the 13th Sweetspet, Gumimin. However, the film proved to be a failure at the box office. In the January 2013 Issue of Pucchigumi magazine, the 40th Jewelpet, Rossa was officially revealed. In 2014, the 41st Jewelpet, Luea, was also revealed and in the November 2014 issue of ''Youchien'', marked the debut of the 42nd character Larimar. In 2016, the musicals based on Jewelpet ended its run. As of July 2017, the characters were removed in Sanrio Puroland's catalog of meet of greet characters due to rising popularity of the '' Rilu Rilu Fairilu'' Anime series. Japanese netizens expressed their concerns over the issue as the indoor park's representatives stated that the popularity of the new series has caused for the characters to be removed from the lineup. The franchise officially celebrated its 10th anniversary in 2019 with the re-release of all 7 anime series in

YouTube YouTube is a global online video sharing and social media platform headquartered in San Bruno, California. It was launched on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim. It is owned by Google, and is the second mo ...

in a limited time basis alongside a new stage show in the 2019 Tokyo Toy Show.

Media

Toys

Sega Toys collaborated with Sanrio to release a line of plush toys on January 15, 2008. Each plush Jewelpet contains a password to access the Web-Gurumi website, a special site in which the customer "adopts" this pet in the virtual world. If the user doesn't have the password, the user may not get access to the website. Accounts expire within one year, unless another Jewelpet toy is bought, and that animal is added to the user account. With the expansion of the series, toy replicas of the Jewel Stick, Jewel Charms, Jewel Pocketbook and Jewel Pods from the anime series were made as well.

Merchandise

As with other Sanrio character franchises such as Hello Kitty, My Melody,

Sugarbunnies are a character duo originally designed in 2004 for Sanrio by Kazumi Fukasawa (深沢和美). The duo are composed of twin bunnies called Shirousa and Kurousa (both born on May 26), who specialize in making sweets and pastries. After ...

and Cinnamoroll, Jewelpet merchandise mostly consists of stationery, school supplies, bags, raincoats, umbrellas, bento boxes and even toy replicas of the Jewel Stick and Jewel Pocketbook from the anime series. Merchandise was released by Sanrio, Sega and

Bandai is a Japanese multinational corporation, multinational toy manufacturer and distributor headquartered in Taitō, Tokyo. Its international branches, Bandai Namco Toys & Collectables America and Bandai UK, are respectively headquartered in Irvine ...

, among other companies. The popularity of the series then expanded overseas in

Hong Kong Hong Kong ( (US) or (UK); , ), officially the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of the People's Republic of China (abbr. Hong Kong SAR or HKSAR), is a List of cities in China, city and Special administrative regions of China, special ...

South Korea South Korea, officially the Republic of Korea (ROK), is a country in East Asia, constituting the southern part of the Korea, Korean Peninsula and sharing a Korean Demilitarized Zone, land border with North Korea. Its western border is formed ...

and

Europe Europe is a large peninsula conventionally considered a continent in its own right because of its great physical size and the weight of its history and traditions. Europe is also considered a Continent#Subcontinents, subcontinent of Eurasia ...

. A

Trading Card Game A collectible card game (CCG), also called a trading card game (TCG) among other names, is a type of card game that mixes strategy game, strategic deck building elements with features of trading cards, introduced with ''Magic: The Gathering'' in ...

spinoff was also released by

Bushiroad is a Japanese entertainment company, producer of collectible card games and trading cards, publisher of mobile apps and games, promotional items and many other venues, which was founded in 2007 by Takaaki Kidani and is headquartered in Tokyo. ...

, the creators of the Weiß Schwarz, ''Alice X Cross'' and

Cardfight!! Vanguard is a Japanese multimedia franchise jointly created by Akira Itō, Satoshi Nakamura, Mitsuhisa Tamura, and Bushiroad president Takaaki Kidani. It currently consists of multiple anime television series, an official tradi ...

Trading Card Games. Both the starter set and booster packs were released on July 30, 2009. and was later discontinued in 2010. Also several Jewelpet characters were also released as stickers for the instant messaging software

LINE Line most often refers to: * Line (geometry), object with zero thickness and curvature that stretches to infinity * Telephone line, a single-user circuit on a telephone communication system Line, lines, The Line, or LINE may also refer to: Art ...

Anime

anime is Traditional animation, hand-drawn and computer animation, computer-generated animation originating from Japan. Outside of Japan and in English, ''anime'' refers specifically to animation produced in Japan. However, in Japan and in Japane ...

adaptation of the ''Jewelpet'' franchise was produced by Studio Comet and premiered on April 5, 2009 on

TV Osaka is a television station affiliated with the TX Network in Osaka, Japan. The mascot character is "Takoru-kun" (たこるくん). History Television Osaka, Inc. was founded in 1981 as part of the reorganization of Tokyo Channel 12 Ltd (now TV T ...

and

TV Tokyo JOTX-DTV (channel 7), branded as and known colloquially as , is a television station headquartered in the Sumitomo Fudosan Roppongi Grand Tower in Roppongi, Minato, Tokyo, Japan, owned and operated by the subsidiary of listed certifie ...

, replacing Onegai My Melody Kirara★ in its initial timeslot. The series also recently aired in

Taiwan Taiwan, officially the Republic of China (ROC), is a country in East Asia, at the junction of the East and South China Seas in the northwestern Pacific Ocean, with the People's Republic of China (PRC) to the northwest, Japan to the no ...

on YOYO TV, and premiered as part the ''Boing'' programming block on the

Telecinco Telecinco is a Spanish free-to-air television channel operated by Mediaset España. The channel was previously known as Tele 5, because it had first begun its experimental transmissions on 10 March 1989, and a year later, it was officially laun ...

television network in

Spain , image_flag = Bandera de España.svg , image_coat = Escudo de España (mazonado).svg , national_motto = '' Plus ultra'' (Latin)(English: "Further Beyond") , national_anthem = (English: "Royal March") , ...

in April 2010. In February 2011 the series aired in Italy on

Italia 1 Italia 1 (Italian pronunciation ) is an Italian free-to-air television channel on the Mediaset network, owned by MFE - MediaForEurope. It is oriented at both young and adult people. Italia 1 was launched on 3 January 1982 and, originally, was o ...

. A spinoff, titled began airing on

on April 3, 2010 and concluded its broadcast on April 2, 2011. A third installment, titled premiered on April 9, 2011. A fourth series titled was released on April 7, 2012 and ended on March 30, 2013. A fifth installment titled was first revealed on the March Issue of

Pucchigumi is a Japanese monthly children's manga magazine published by Shogakukan. Several different manga titles, and adaptations aimed at young female readers have been serialized in the magazine in its decade long history. The latest circulation figur ...

and premiered on April 6, 2013 and ended on March 29, 2014. The sixth installment, was announced by Sanrio via the official Anime

Twitter Twitter is an online social media and social networking service owned and operated by American company Twitter, Inc., on which users post and interact with 280-character-long messages known as "tweets". Registered users can post, like, and ...

account and aired from April 5, 2014 to March 28, 2015. was revealed in the 2015 Winter Wonder Festival and later in the March 2015 issue of Pucchigumi. It is the final installment of the ''Jewelpet'' franchise, is animated by

Studio DEEN is a Japanese animation studio founded in 1975 by Sunrise producer Hiroshi Hasegawa and ex-Sunrise animators. The studio owns three subsidiaries: Danny Donghua (丹尼動画), a Chinese sub-contracting studio; Megumi (め組), a digital work sub ...

and aired from April 4, 2015 to December 26, 2015. It was replaced by '' Rilu Rilu Fairilu: The Fairy's Door'' on February 6, 2016, a month after this program's re-run selected episodes. The character designs of the Jewelpets and the human characters were handled by Tomoko Miyakawa ( Onegai My Melody) in the first and fourth series. Yukiko Ibe (''

Nanatsuiro Drops is a Japanese adult visual novel developed by UNiSONSHIFT and released on April 21, 2006 for Windows. The game was later ported to the PlayStation 2 and Nintendo DS. A light novel, written by Tamaki Ichikawa and illustrated by Noizi Ito, ...

'') handles the human character designs for ''Twinkle'' while Mariko Fujita (''

Galaxy Angel is a ''bishōjo'' sci-fi metaseries composed of anime, manga and dating sim video games. It was created by Broccoli in July 2000, when it launched a multi-platformed project called ''Project G.A.'' The anime and ''Galaxy Angel Party'' ...

'') handles the human character designs for ''Sunshine''.

Movie

A feature-length movie titled , was directed by Hiroaki Sakurai (

Daa! Daa! Daa! is a Japanese manga series written and illustrated by Mika Kawamura. The manga was serialized by Kodansha in '' Nakayoshi'' from February 1998 to March 2002, and the chapters were collected into 9 '' tankōbon'' volumes. It was adapted in ...

Cromartie High School is a Japanese manga series written and illustrated by Eiji Nonaka and published in Kodansha's ''Weekly Shōnen Magazine'' from August 2000 to May 2006. It follows the everyday life of Takashi Kamiyama and his odd classmates at Cromartie Hi ...

) and produced by Studio Comet and

Toho is a Japanese film, theatre production and distribution company. It has its headquarters in Chiyoda, Tokyo, and is one of the core companies of the Osaka-based Hankyu Hanshin Toho Group. Outside of Japan, it is best known as the producer ...

. It was released on August 11, 2012, and was a box-office flop

Books

Official Storybooks and Reference Books were also issued by

Shogakukan is a Japanese publisher of dictionaries, literature, comics ( manga), non-fiction, DVDs, and other media in Japan. Shogakukan founded Shueisha, which also founded Hakusensha. These are three separate companies, but are together called the ...

during the series's release each year. Two

manga Manga ( Japanese: 漫画 ) are comics or graphic novels originating from Japan. Most manga conform to a style developed in Japan in the late 19th century, and the form has a long prehistory in earlier Japanese art. The term ''manga'' is ...

spinoffs were also created, and each were published during the airing of the anime series. The first one was serialized in the Shōjo Magazine

with illustrations by Mako Morie in 2009. The first series ended in the same year. On December 28, 2009, a second manga was then serialized in the Shōjo Magazine

Ciao ''Ciao'' ( , ) is an informal salutation in the Italian language that is used for both "hello" and "goodbye". Originally from the Venetian language, it has entered the vocabulary of English and of many other languages around the world. Its du ...

with illustrations and story by

Sayuri Tatsuyama Sayuri may refer to: People * Sayuri (given name) * Sayuri (musician) is a Japanese singer, musician and songwriter. Biography Before major debut In 6th grade, Sayuri was impressed by the fact that, despite being idols, Kanjani Eight form ...

under Sanrio and Sega Toys' permission. The manga ran from February 2010 to September 2010. An official light novel titled was released as part of

Kadokawa Kadokawa may refer to: *Kadokawa Corporation, the holding company of the Kadokawa Group **Kadokawa Content Gate and Kadokawa Mobile, both former names for BookWalker **Kadokawa Future Publishing, a subsidiary of Kadokawa Corporation and the publi ...

's Tsubasa Bunko Children's Light Novels on May 11, 2012, written by Hiroko Kanasugi and illustrated by POP. It introduces an exclusive character to the story, a "Jewelpet" named and the story revolves around her experiences and bond with Ruby and her friends while setting up the Jewel Festival in Jewel Land. An official guide book to commemorate the third series was also published by Yousensha, titled . The book is part of the Otoma Anime Collection books and contains character profiles, a story outline, an introduction to the world of Jewelpet, a listing of songs used in the series and interviews from both the cast and staff members of the series. The book was published on June 2, 2012.

Games

Seven video games were also made to tie in with the toy and anime franchises, three were for the

Nintendo DS The is a handheld game console produced by Nintendo, released globally across 2004 and 2005. The DS, an initialism for "Developers' System" or "Dual Screen", introduced distinctive new features to handheld games: two LCD screens working in t ...

, three for the

Nintendo 3DS The is a handheld game console produced by Nintendo. It was announced in March 2010 and unveiled at E3 2010 as the successor to the Nintendo DS. The system features backward compatibility with Nintendo DS video games. As an eighth-generati ...

and one for the video game arcades in Japan.

Events

Several musicals were held in Sanrio Puroland and Sanrio Harmonyland, featuring several of the Jewelpets: Ruby, Sapphie, Garnet, Labra, Angela, Charlotte, Jasper and Rosa. Ruby is a mascot costume at Puroland. Some of the musicals also feature other Sanrio characters. A musical based on the Kira Deco arc of the anime premiered in Japan in June 2012.

Reception

Jewelpet ranked 3rd place in the ''Bandai Child Questionnaire'' in June 2010, due to its popularity with children aged 6 to 8 years old and older females alike. The Character franchise is also one of the top 15 highly voted Sanrio Character Franchise in the 26th Sanrio Character Ranking in 2011, ranking into 14th place. It became the 6th highly voted Character Franchise in both the 27th and 28th Sanrio Character Ranking. The first Jewelpet anime ranked 7th in the Kanto Video Research, from December 27, 2009 to January 3, 2010 after airing Episodes 39 and 40. Its sequel has received critical acclaim from fans and critics, making the first Sanrio funded anime to appeal in all demographics. The series' main character, Akari Sakura is also ranked 6th in Megahouse's Excellent Model Series 10th Anniversary poll. In the press release by Sega Toys on October 1, 2012, the Jewel Pod Diamond sold about 160,000 units in less than two months since its release and topped the charts as the most sold girl's toy in Japan. The company had the target sales of 400,000 by the end of the year and had a combined total of 700,000 units sold on all three Jewel Pods.

References

External links

*
Sega's Official Website
*